the fall • s.m.

43 • always

// margot kate franklin //

@margotkatefranklin: "i like me better when I'm with you."

• • •

"Margot?"

It can't be time to get up already.

The door slowly opened, and a tall, familiar figure walked in. I sat up in the bed, looking at the clock on the night stand and turning on the lamp.

"It's 3 AM, Shawn. What are you doing?" I said, rubbing my eyes.

"I couldn't sleep," he replied.

"Well, for the first time, I actually could," I said with a small smile, and he sighed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have woken you up," he told me.

"Too late now, right?"

"Margot, I —"

"I'm just kidding," I said, and patted the bed next to me. "Come on."

He hesitated, but climbed in next to me. I laid my head on his chest, feeling his heartbeat steadily. He took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers. Both of us didn't say anything for a moment or two, we just stayed like that.

"What's bothering you?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "It's just...it's nothing."

"Oh, come on. It's obviously something," I replied, looking up at him. "You can tell me."

"I've just been thinking," he said after a moment.

"About?"

"You," he told me.

I smiled. "What about me? All good things, right?"

He chuckled and nodded. "Always."

"But really. What about me?"

"Remember that night, a long time ago; you were at my place, and we were watching Friends?"

"That was like every single night for us," I said with a smile. "But go on."

"You were talking about how you had to go home, but I convinced you to stay —"

"Because you're a bad influence on me," I joked.

"Right. But that night was when you told me about Evan for the first time. You were tired and a little out of it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't even know what you were saying. But you were still saying it, and I was listening."

"I remember that night. It's a little blurry, but I remember it," I said, looking straight up at the ceiling. "I was a mess."

He shook his head. "No," he said, and I gave him a doubtful look. "Well, maybe a little bit. But that's not the point."

"So what is the point?" I asked with a small smile.

"I'm getting there," he reassured me. "I hadn't told you yet, but I knew I loved you that night. Because I realized that you had opened up to me with the hardest thing in your life, and that felt enough like you had just told me you loved me. I realized I didn't want you to ever hurt like that again, and I was going to do everything to make sure that you didn't," he told me.